In the 1930s, 50 black and mixed-raced boys aged around ten had been taken
from a Rio orphanage with the promise of a better life at the Rocha Miranda
family’s property.

Instead they were forced to work as slave labourers. Known by numbers rather
than names, the terrified children were beaten and forced to make fascist
salutes to their masters.

In the nearby town of Campino do Monte Alegre — 150 miles west of Sao Paulo —
we met one of the former slaves.

The pain of those years are etched into Aloisio Silva’s lined face.

Still lucid at 91, he said: “We were promised there would be sweets and we
would ride horses, but we were lied to.

“Instead we were made to work the land. We were beaten with horse whips and
sticks. We were slaves.”

Aloisio, who was taken to the ranch in 1933 aged ten — a few months after
Hitler seized power in Germany — added: “There were guard dogs so we
couldn’t run away. They were used to herd us like cattle. I was just No23 to
the bosses.

“Every Sunday morning we would march and make the fascist salute. At the time
I had no idea what Nazism was.”

Another surviving slave, 89-year-old Argemiro dos Santos, said recently: “They
didn’t like black people at all. There were photographs of Hitler and you
were compelled to salute.”

Pre-war Brazil had strong links with Nazi Germany — they were economic
partners and Brazil had the biggest fascist party outside Europe, with more
than 40,000 members.

Today, relatives of the long-dead Rocha Miranda brothers say their forebears
stopped supporting Nazism well before the Second World War.

Maurice Rocha Miranda, Osvaldo’s great nephew, denies the claims about the
farm orphans. He told a local paper they “had to be controlled, but were
never punished or enslaved”.

Another distant relative — who asked to remain anonymous — told The Sun: “It
wasn’t just here that a stick was used to discipline children. It was used
in every school in that era.

“They built a school for the children at the ranch and educated them. People
hear the word Nazi and go crazy.”

Last night Professor Filho, 45, who interviewed a number of surviving orphans,
insisted: “They weren’t paid for their work, their freedom was restricted
and they were controlled through violence. They were slaves.”

The AIB disintegrated after an attempted coup in 1938 and the ranch’s harsh
regime was relaxed in the 1940s, with the orphan slaves either fleeing or
taking paid work on the farm.

But elderly locals say that in the 1930s the estate was being developed as a
South American retreat for German Nazis.

Retired restaurateur Carmo Gomes said: “There are rumours that the ranch was
to become a Nazi colony in Brazil if Germany won the war.

“It’s only hearsay, but people in the town remember rumours of lots of
blond-haired visitors. They would have been welcomed at the ranch.”

The SS sent an expedition to the Brazilian Amazon in the 1930s to explore the
possibility of an Aryan outpost.

The Nazis believed they were destined to colonise and settle parts of the
world, much like the pioneers of the American West.

Dr Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel, an SS officer and leader of the expedition, wrote
to Nazi boss Heinrich Himmler: “The two largest scantily-populated but
resource-rich areas on earth are in Siberia and South America.

He added of the Amazon region: “For the more advanced white race it offers
outstanding possibilities for exploitation.”

Yet the plan was doomed to failure. One of the three-man team — Joseph Greiner
— died from “fever” in 1936. His grave was marked by a 9ft wooden cross
etched with swastikas. Himmler then lost interest in the bizarre plan.

After the war the Cruzeiro do Sul ranch passed out of the Rocha Miranda
family’s hands. It is now a sugar cane farm.

Farmer Jose Maciel — responsible for unearthing its secret — said: “People
told me I was mad when I said Nazis had lived here.

“Now I believe the church is a monument to those who toiled there — and a
reminder of a fallen evil empire.”

Haven for men of evil

NEARLY 2,000 Nazis fled to Brazil after the Second World War, including
Auschwitz concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele, who oversaw hideous
experiments on prisoners.

He first escaped to Argentina, then moved on to Brazil in 1960. He drowned
while swimming off the Brazilian coast in 1979.

Former SS officer Gustav Wagner – linked to the murder of 152,000 Jews at the
Sobibor concentration camp in Poland – also fled to Brazil.

In 1978 a West German government request to extradite him was denied by
Brazil’s supreme court due to one mistake in the paperwork.

In 1980 Wagner was found dead with a knife in his chest in Sao Paulo. An
official report found he had committed suicide but there was speculation he
had been killed by Nazi hunters.